Condition Report:
Relined. Retouching to face, hand, area surrounding left elbow and left of head and to his right shoulder, and to extreme top edge. 1 inch area of canvas becoming detached from relining bottom edge. Other general retouching. Condition Disclaimer Under the Conditions of Sale applicable to the sale of the lot, buyers must satisfy themselves as to each and every aspect of the quality of the lot, including (without limitation) its authorship, attribution, condition, provenance, authenticity, age, suitability and origin. Lots are sold on an 'as is' basis but the actual condition of the lot may not be as good as indicated by its outward appearance. In particular parts may have been replaced or renewed and lots may not be authentic or of satisfactory quality. Any statement in relation to the lot is merely an expression of opinion of the seller or Lyon & Turnbull and should not be relied upon as an inducement to bid on the lot. Lots are available for inspection prior to the sale and you are strongly advised to examine any lot in which you are interested prior to the sale. Our condition report has not been prepared by a professional conservator, restorer or engineer.

Condition Report:
Thin vertical line of repainting between Christ and figure to his left. Other minor retouching. Condition Disclaimer Under the Conditions of Sale applicable to the sale of the lot, buyers must satisfy themselves as to each and every aspect of the quality of the lot, including (without limitation) its authorship, attribution, condition, provenance, authenticity, age, suitability and origin. Lots are sold on an 'as is' basis but the actual condition of the lot may not be as good as indicated by its outward appearance. In particular parts may have been replaced or renewed and lots may not be authentic or of satisfactory quality. Any statement in relation to the lot is merely an expression of opinion of the seller or Lyon & Turnbull and should not be relied upon as an inducement to bid on the lot. Lots are available for inspection prior to the sale and you are strongly advised to examine any lot in which you are interested prior to the sale. Our condition report has not been prepared by a professional conservator, restorer or engineer.

Description:
James Smetham (1821-1889) oil on wooden panel, Tales from the sea, signed and dated 1868, 9.5 x 15.5in.

Condition Report:
Descriptions provided in both printed and on-line catalogue formats do not include condition reports. The absence of a condition statement does not imply that the lot is in perfect condition or completely free from wear and tear, imperfections or the effects of aging. Interested bidders are strongly encouraged to request a condition report on any lots upon which they intend to bid, prior to placing a bid. All transactions are governed by Gorringes Conditions of Sale.

Description:
The Call of the Prophet Amos signed 'J. Smetham' (lower left) and further signed, dated and inscribed 'Call of the Prophet Amos/by James Smetham./1875.' (on an old label on the reverse) oil on canvas 10 x 24 in. (25.5 x 62.3 cm.) PROVENANCE Dennis J. Smetham (+); Christie's, London, 25 July 1975, lot 71 (œ440 gns to Coulter). NOTES Smetham's work was characterised by his friend Rossetti as partaking 'greatly of Blake's immediate spirit, being also often allied by landscape intensity to Samuel Palmer'. In the artist's own words he explained how he sought in his imagination to combine 'art, literature and the religious life'. Amos, a shepherd who tended mulberries, lived near Jerusalem on the edge of the desert of Judah. He was one of the first great Hebrew prophets and foretold the doom which would fall on Israel unless its people mended their ways. In the midst of the social and industrial upheaval of the mid-nineteenth century such subjects held great appeal for Smetham, who felt they had contemporary significance. The picture was one of ten other works by Smetham sold by the artist's grandson at Christie's in 1975.

Description:
Sunset: an extensive landscape with sheep in a pen, a wood beyond signed with unidentified monogram (lower left) pencil and watercolour, heightened with bodycolour 11 ¼ x 19 Á in. (28.7 x 49.3 cm.) Footnotes:The present watercolour is by the same hand as a watercolour previously exhibited as by James Smetham (1821-1889), included in a sale and exhibition at Christie's London, 9 June 1995, lot 271.

Description:
Piping down the Valleys signed 'J.Smetham.' (lower left) and inscribed 'Piping down the Vallies' (on the reverse) oil on board, in original frame 41/2 x 12 in. (11.5 x 30.6 cm.) NOTES Smetham's work was characterised by his friend Rossetti as partaking 'greatly of Blake's immediate spirit, being also often allied by landscape intensity to Samuel Palmer'. In his own words he explained how he sought in his imagination to combine 'art, literature and the religious life all in one'. In Susan P Casteras's biography, James Smetham, 1995, p. 124, pl. 38, she notes how Smetham wrote of another version of this picture wondering if one could 'dwell in this valley of Heartsease where Humility and Content meet with horn-handed labour, and all sweetly foot it by the windy brooks, and over the windy sheep walks!'. Derived from lines by Blake, the picture encapsulates Smetham's ideal of an arcadian age of innocence and compares directly in scale and composition with his illustration to Milton's Lycidas, offered at Christie's London, 25 January 1974, lot 46, consigned by the grandson of the artist.

Description:
Sunset: an extensive landscape with sheep in a pen, a wood beyond signed with unidentified monogram (lower left) pencil and watercolour, heightened with bodycolour 11 x 19.3/8 in. (28.7 x 49.3 cm.) NOTES The present watercolour is by the same hand as a watercolour previously exhibited as by James Smetham (1821-1889), included in a sale and exhibition at Christie's London, 9 June 1995, lot 271.

Description:
James Smetham (1821-1889) Saul "hiding among the stuff" signed and dated '1866/J.Smetham' (lower right) and with inscription 'Saul "hiding among the stuff."' (on an old label attached to the reverse)pen and brown ink, watercolour and bodycolour with gum arabic 5¼ x 4 7/8 in. (13.3 x 12.4 cm.)

Description:
Christ at Emmaus oil on panel 193/4 x 153/4 in. (50.2 x 40 cm.) PROVENANCE Mr Winders in 1856. Anon. sale, Christie's, London, 10 December 1963, lot 196. Charles and Lavinia Handley-Read, London. with The Fine Art Society, London, from whom acquired by the present owner. LITERATURE Sarah Smetham and William Davies (eds), The Letters of James Smetham, London, 1891, p. 16. Morchard Bishop and Edward Malins, James Smetham and Francis Danby: Two 19th Century Romantic Painters, London, 1974, p. 40. Susan P. Casteras, James Smetham: Artist, Author, Pre-Raphaelite Associate, Aldershot, 1995, pp. 103-5, 156(?), 164(?), illus. pl. 25 and in colour following p. 116. EXHIBITION London, Royal Academy, 1852, no. 23. Victorian and Edwardian Decorative Art: The Handley-Read Collection, 1972, no. A47. Paintings, Water-Colours and Drawings from the Handley-Read Collection, 1974, no. 74. The Royal Academy (1837-1901) Revisited, 1975-6, no. 62. The Pre-Raphaelite Era, 1976, no. 3-15. The Art of Seeing: John Ruskin and the Victorian Eye, 1993, cat. pl. 11. New Haven, Yale Center for British Art, James Smetham, 1994. London, Christie's, James Smetham, 1995, no. 14. A Brush with the Millenium, 2000, no. 5. NOTES The picture is one of Smetham's most important early works, and certainly the most important to have survived. Painted in 1849, when he was twenty eight, it was exhibited at the Royal Academy three years later, the second time that he had been represented on its walls. The subject is Christ's miraculous appearance to two of his disciples following the Resurrection (St Luke, ch. 24, v. 13-35). Sitting at supper with them at Emmaus, He remains unrecognised until He blesses the bread in emulation of the Last Supper and suddenly 'their eyes were opened'. In Smetham's picture one disciple is already experiencing the revelation while the other looks on with a degree of scepticism, still awaiting englightenment. The picture cannot be understood fully without an appreciation of Smetham's deep religious faith. Born and brought up a Methodist, he remained intensely alive to the spiritual dimension throughout his life. Yet while religion was a driving force and a constant source of inspiration to him as an artist, it also contributed to the morbid sensitivity and chronic sense of inadequacy that dogged his career and eventually led to his mental and physical breakdown. The picture was painted before Smetham moved to London in 1851, taking up a post at the Weslyan Normal College, a Methodist teacher training institution in Westminster, that he was to hold for twenty-six years. As a youth, he had been articled to the Lincoln architect E.J. Willson, who had encouraged him to make a detailed study of the Cathedral. There is perhaps a reflection of these experiences in the picture, with its strong architectural forms and a hint of a Gothic arch in the background. While living in Lincoln, Smetham had met the painter Peter De Wint. This had fired his ambition to be an artist, but the real sense of direction had come through reading Ruskin, who had published two volumes of Modern Painters by 1849. The picture probably betrays Ruskin's influence in its careful attention to naturalistic detail and the total sincerity with which the scene is envisaged. The impact of Pre-Raphaelitism, however, is hardly yet apparent, even though the picture was shown at the RA the same year as such masterpieces as Holman Hunt's Hireling Shepherd (Manchester) and Millais' Ophelia (Tate Gallery). Smetham in his persona as one of the most interesting associates of the Pre-Raphaelites did not emerge until he had met Ruskin and Rossetti in 1854. The picture was the most important of several Smethams that belonged to Charles and Lavinia Handley-Read, who between them did so much to pioneer the Victorian revival in the 1960s. Their self-inflicted deaths late in 1971 was an ever-to-be-lamented tragedy, depriving the movement of two much-loved and respected gurus and themselves of the opportunity to see the fruits of their labours. For other pictures from their collection see lots 34 and 156.

Description:
The Call of the Prophet Amos signed 'J. Smetham' (lower left) and further signed, dated and inscribed 'Call of the Prophet Amos/by James Smetham./1875.' (on an old label on the reverse) oil on canvas 10 x 24 in. (25.5 x 62.3 cm.) PROVENANCE Dennis J. Smetham; Christie's, London, 25 July 1975, lot 71 (440 gns. to Coulter). NOTES Smetham's work was characterised by his friend Rossetti as partaking 'greatly of Blake's immediate spirit, being also often allied by landscape intensity to Samuel Palmer'. In the artist's own words he explained how he sought in his imagination to combine 'art, literature and the religious life'. Amos, a shepherd who tended mulberries, lived near Jerusalem on the edge of the desert of Judah. He was one of the first great Hebrew prophets and foretold the doom which would fall on Israel unless its people mended their ways. In the midst of the social and industrial upheaval of the mid-nineteenth century such subjects held great appeal for Smetham, who felt they had contemporary significance.

Description:
James Smetham1821-1889the earthly paradise; pan and the nymphsa pair, both inscribed with title on the reverseoil on board (2)both 17.5 by 28 cm., 6 7/8 by 11 in.The first of these two panels by James Smetham takes its title from William Morris's verse cycle The Earthly Paradise, written in the second half of the 1860s and published in 1868-70. In the poem a company of Norseman find their way to a 'nameless city in a distant sea' where the gods of the Greek world are still worshipped. The inhabitants of the city take turns to tell the legends of ancient mythology, while the wanderers alternate these with their own medieval and Norse stories. Between these are interpolated lyrical descriptions of the changing seasons.Smetham had first encountered Morris in 1854, when at Ruskin's suggestion he had attended classes at the Working Men's College (where Morris was a part-time teacher). In due course Smetham himself took to writing poetry, efforts which are described and discussed in the letters that he exchanged with D.G. Rossetti. Morris and Smetham coincided from time to time as fellow members of the latter-day Pre-Raphaelite circle (although Smetham was painfully withdrawn and dreaded social engagements). Smetham's adoption of a title which a contemporary audience would have immediately recognised as referring to a famous and much loved poem was perhaps intended as a tribute to Morris.The second painting, which probably also dates from about 1870, may relate to a composition entitled Nymphs in the Twilight which Smetham sold to the Glasgow patron and Liberal member of parliament William Graham, for 75 guineas.